tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14856978.post116920552882833604..comments2018-11-05T09:57:22.228-08:00Comments on Gone Gaming: Investor WargamesColdfoothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11636345146138362966noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14856978.post-1169500413126663392007-01-22T13:13:00.000-08:002007-01-22T13:13:00.000-08:00Calling a 2 hour game a filler is equivalent to ca...Calling a 2 hour game a filler is equivalent to calling a 5 hour game a marathon. There are games out there that take more than a day (or even a week - Gulp!) so that's the perspective I'm coming from. But I rarely associate the quality of a game to its length at all. If there's a great game that only took two hours to play, I'm the first to suggest we play it again (later that day if not immediately). It's the only way to truly discover the depth of a game and all it has to offer.<BR/><BR/>Five hours do seem to fly by when playing Die Macher. My group feels the same way about Britannia, because there usually isn't a lot of downtime before you have to make decisions again. We're usually engaged throughout. Compare this to History of the World. Now there's a 5 hour game that seems to take longer than its duration. Despite that downtime, I still like it too. But I recognize that design will turn off some gamers.TrimChrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13121075953878965229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14856978.post-1169489814685851432007-01-22T10:16:00.000-08:002007-01-22T10:16:00.000-08:00I agree the length or shortness of a game isn't th...I agree the length or shortness of a game isn't the final arbiter of goodness. I think it would be fair to say, however, that there are some games that are good for their particular length.<BR/><BR/>To me, Britannia was much too long for what I get out of it. I wouldn't mind playing a 5 hour game as long as it is engaging for me. As a matter of fact, I'm going to be playing Die Macher with Kris this weekend and will see if the reviews for that game are correct...they essentially say it is 5 hours well spent and the time goes by quickly.<BR/><BR/>Imperial and Perikles, on the other hand, work well for the time it takes to play those games. 2 hours or less. I get more enjoyment out of one two hour game of these than a 5 hour Britannia session. If you think Perikles and Imperial are fillers then I don't think we could ever come to any sort of agreement on the relative merits of these games.dgilliganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05246414416075343144noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14856978.post-1169434822225062332007-01-21T19:00:00.000-08:002007-01-21T19:00:00.000-08:00dgilliganYour list of questions for Imperial may b...dgilligan<BR/><BR/>Your list of questions for Imperial may be longer, but I think most of them are easier and quicker to decide than the problems you need to solve to play Britannia. If someone disrupts your strategy in Imperial, too often you can just shift your investment elswhere and barely skip a beat.<BR/><BR/>I find the repetitiveness of mechanics in Britannia and Imperial to be the same.<BR/><BR/>And when did two 2 hour games become more gaming then a single 4 hour game? I see this as a fallacy. I'm always of the opposite mind. The two hours I spent on a filler could have been better invested into a game of more consequence.TrimChrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13121075953878965229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14856978.post-1169414016275205542007-01-21T13:13:00.000-08:002007-01-21T13:13:00.000-08:00One of the biggest problems I had with Britannia w...One of the biggest problems I had with Britannia was the length of the game. I takes 4-5 hours to play and after a few hours it seemed extremely repetitive.<BR/><BR/>Yes, I can see how the game could unfold differently with a different set of choices but I don't find the choices to be terribly difficult. As the last poster said, do I score with this nation or do I use it to set up a future nation. I base that upon who I see as doing well or poorly (try to score if I'm leading...try to set up if behind and preferably set up by hurting the leader.) Decisions around fighting or retreating seemed to be no brainers most of the time.<BR/><BR/>In Imperial, I found the choices to be much more varied. Here are some questions I see in Imperial:<BR/><BR/>What country do I want?<BR/>Why do I want it?<BR/>What will I do with it if I get it?<BR/>Will anyone else want it forcing me to increase investment?<BR/>What is my best choice on the rondel given the current situation? Which country should I work with? Which should I destroy?<BR/>Should I milk this country for all its worth and leave it a lifeless husk or ride it out for the long haul?<BR/>If I do milk it dry, where do I go next?<BR/><BR/>And so on, and so on.<BR/><BR/>Perikles also has a wide variety of choices and ways to score victory points that lend it to being a much deeper game than Britannia in my opinion. To me, one of the best aspects of both Imperial and Perikles is that they can be enjoyed in a couple of hours or less, given experienced players, allowing for more gaming goodness to take place!<BR/><BR/>I would agree that they are not wargames in the classic sense but they do have a wargame aspect to them, in addition to other mechanics. All said, I will gladly play either Imperial or Perikles again before even considering another marathon session of Britannia.dgilliganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05246414416075343144noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14856978.post-1169223530813202592007-01-19T08:18:00.000-08:002007-01-19T08:18:00.000-08:00I haven't played Pericles yet, but I find Britanni...I haven't played Pericles yet, but I find Britannia to have much more interesting choices then Imperial. Also, I don't find Imperial to be a wargame hybrid at all. I see it more as a pure stock market game with a wargame veil obscuring the market manipulation mechanics. The units dying in combat by simple elimination strips away this veil rather quickly. Sophisticated is the last word I'd use to describe Imperial.<BR/><BR/>After one play of Britannia, it may indeed seem that your actions are preprogrammed, but there is much more depth that only multiple plays will reveal. Your objectives in Brit is going to overlap with the objectives of other nations. So do you fight for those objectives at all costs and sacrifice your long-term potential or do you negotiate a deal that gives you less than you'd like? Do you sacrifice memebers of one of your nations (and thus losing some of its scroring opportunity) to better set-up one of your other nations? When you choose to fight and when you choose to retreat will have significant impact.<BR/><BR/>To truly enjoy Brittania though, you need some appreciation of watching how history will unfold in one game vs. the last. I think this is true for most wargames. And Britannia does this well. After a dozen games I have not yet seen a duplicated result. I like well made hybrid games for their mechanics, but this "sweep of history" impact is still missing from most.TrimChrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13121075953878965229noreply@blogger.com